System Number: 01857
Date: 16 March 1891
Author: Elisabeth Greffulhe[1]
Place: [Paris]
Recipient: JW
Place: London
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler G222
Document Type: ALS[2]
[embossed monogram:] EG[3]
16 Mars 91.
Cher grand ami!
Nos relations rares me font unir ces trois mots -
Je les lance bravement à travers les mers.
Le temps employé à une oeuvre ne signifie pas plus au point de vue de son existence; le "Vivre" de [p. 2] chaque jour n'édifie pas plus les affinités que certaines minutes ont rendues [sic] éternelles. -
Les minutes, peut-être les mêmes, ont été génialement nommées "Knowledge of a lifetime[4]" dans un livre[5] qui fait mes délices, quoiqu'il me fasse connaître une nouvelle incarnation Prudho-Ruskinesque[6]! et que je trouve que:
"Vous lui fîtes Seigneur,
En le croquant beaucoup d'honneur[7]."
[p. 3] Je vous félicite de l'évènement formidable qui va s'accomplir chez vous, car celui dont vous allez faire le portrait[8] est grand aussi et vivra dans votre oeuvre et dans la sienne - échange indissoluble .-
Il est rare qu'un peintre trouve un modèle - le contraire l'est tout autant; Dans cette circonstance, ne semble-t-il pas que cette rencontre ne soit spécifiée [p. 4] à travers les siècles?
Il faut que cette vision unique soit - unique -
Soyez long à choisir la pose.
Devant un être aussi multiple n'a-t-on pas à lutter contre mille tentations -
Il est, entre toutes, une expression qu'il faut saisir et qui est celle où sa personnalité se révèle et où son expressivité est conforme à son être intérieur.
Il faut se garder d'être trop [p. 5] vite séduit par l'extrême élégance de sa race -
Je tremblerais de voir un "Robert de Montesquiou[9]" "chic jeune homme de la fin du XIX siècle" (qu'il sait être aussi) -
Vous voudrez le regard: et vous aurez raison! -
Je voudrais le profil et j'aurais raison! - Le "très [p. 6] beau profil" sculpté par Michel-Ange[10] avec l'intensité de l'oeil qui voit et qui pense, - contrairement à ceux qui regardent sans voir, et qui, surtout, n'ont jamais pensé.
Mais, je m'aperçois, mon cher Maître que je suis en train de vous donner une leçon!
Aussi je me retire bien vite pour en attendre les résultats.
Croyez, je vous prie, à la profonde admiration d'une alliée
Caraman Chimay
Ctesse Greffulhe.
This document is protected by copyright.
Translation:
Dear great friend!
Our special relationship calls me to put together these three words -
I throw them bravely across the seas.
The time used to create a work is not important from the point of view of its existence; the "Living" of [p. 2] each day no longer edifies those affinities which certain minutes have made eternal.
The minutes, perhaps the same, have generally been called "Knowledge of a lifetime" in a book which gives me delight, although it reveals a new Prudho-Ruskinesque incarnation! and I find that:
"You paid him much honour, Lord,
In sketching him."
[p. 3] I congratulate you on the formidable event which is about to happen, because he whose portrait you are going to paint is also great and will live in your work and in his own - an indissoluble exchange. -
It is rare that a painter finds a model - the opposite is as true: In this circumstance, does it not seem that this meeting must have been intended throughout the centuries?
This unique vision must be - unique -
Take a long time to choose the pose.
In front of so many-faceted a being does one not have to struggle against a thousand temptations -
There is, within everything, an expression one has to seize which is the one where one's personality is revealed and where one's expressiveness conforms to one's interior being.
You should guard against being too [p. 5] quickly seduced by the extreme elegance of his race -
I would tremble to see a "Robert de Montesquiou" "smart young man of the end of the 19th century" (which he also knows how to be)
You will want the face and you will be right!
I would want the profile and I would be right! - The "very beautiful profile" sculpted by Michelangelo with the intensity of the eye which sees and thinks, - contrary to those who look without seeing, and who, above all, have never thought.
But I see, my dear Master that I am in the course of giving you a lesson!
Therefore I shall retire really quickly to await the results.
Believe, I beg you, in the profound admiration of an ally
Caraman Chimay
Ctesse Greffulhe
Envelope:
Monsieur Whistler21 Cheyne Walk
Chelsea
Notes:
1. Elisabeth Greffulhe
Elisabeth, Comtesse Greffulhe (1860-1952), née Riquer de Caraman-Chimay [more].
2. ALS
Published in Newton, Joy, La Chauve-Souris et le Papillon. Correspondance Montesquiou-Whistler, Glasgow, 1990, pp. 88-90. Also published in MacDonald, Margaret F. and Joy Newton, 'Letters from the Whistler Collection (University of Glasgow). Correspondance with French Painters,' Gazette des Beaux Arts, no. 128, December 1986, pp. 201-214.
3. EG
The monogram looks quite like one 'C' above another, creating an overall rounded 'E' with the 'G' incorporated.
4. Knowledge of a lifetime
This phrase was used by JW to describe his experience, in the Whistler v. Ruskin trial, and was first published in Whistler, James McNeill, Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics, London, 1878.
5. livre
Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London and New York, 1890.
6. Prudho-Ruskinesque
John Ruskin (1819-1900), critic, social reformer and artist [more]. 'Joseph Prudhomme' is the personification of the bland prosperous bourgeois, created by Henri Monnier.
7. honneur
Adapted from: 'Vous leur fîtes, Seigneur, / En les croquant, beaucoup d'honneur.' La Fontaine, Les Animaux malades de la peste.
8. portrait
See Impressions de gris perle: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (YMSM 397) and Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (YMSM 398).
9. Robert de Montesquiou
Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921), Symbolist writer and poet, and collector [more].
10. Michel-Ange
Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564), sculptor and painter [more].